34 Gabriel
34
Gabriel
Henry was arrested shortly after the incident. Not only did Kierra have physical proof of his abuse all over her body, but the video cameras she had set up showed the officers exactly what they needed to get Henry locked away for a long time. Unfortunately, when a man as powerful as Henry had money and resources, there was a chance that he’d be released sooner than later. Or worse, he’d get a slap on the wrist. Justice wasn’t always serviced, especially for the women who suffered silently for so long. We all had to live with that fear, but we’d face it head-on. Henry wasn’t allowed to hurt my girls anymore. I’d fight to protect them for the remainder of my life. And no matter what, he lost. Henry lost the two most amazing women I’d ever encountered. That would be his imprisonment for the remainder of his days—he’d no longer have access to Kierra and Ava’s light. His world would always be filled with darkness, behind bars or outside of them. He wouldn’t receive any kind of happily ever after. He’d be stuck in the darkness while we danced in the light and built our future toward our happy ending.
I took her to my house to stay, and she remained quiet the whole time. I didn’t blame her. I couldn’t imagine what she was going through, what her mind was going through. After a while, I placed her in a shower and cleaned her up. The dried blood washed down the drain as I washed her body, which was clearly still in a lot of pain. I wished I could take the mental and emotional pain away, too. I wished I could bottle up all her hurting and toss it into the fucking ocean.
“I’m okay,” she whispered as I began to massage my fingers through her hair. “I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay,” she kept saying, as if she was trying to convince herself most of all.
I tilted her head up so her eyes locked with mine. “Kierra, you don’t have to be—”
She shut her eyes and shook her head as the water fell over us. “No. Please. I’m just…” Tears began to fall down her cheeks again as she kept shaking her head. “I have to be okay. I have to be okay. Even though I’m not, I need to keep saying it, okay, Gabriel? Otherwise, he wins, and I can’t let him win,” she sobbed, her body shaking in my arms. “I can’t have him win. I–I can’t. I ca-can’t let him…”
I pressed my chin to the top of her head as I pulled her in to my chest. I held her tightly as she sobbed in my arms, and I whispered, “You’re okay. You’re okay. You’re okay.”
We both knew she wasn’t in that very moment, but I gave her what she needed to hear.
She took deep breaths and echoed my words. “I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay…”
I couldn’t wait until those words were true.
After the shower, I wrapped her in a towel and led her to my bedroom. I dressed her slowly in my T-shirt and sweatpants as she sat on the edge of my bed. She didn’t say a word as I did so. The defeat on her face was enough to break my heart.
I knelt in front of her and took her hands into mine. I knew she was repeating the words I’m okay in her mind. So, I gave her a few more words that she could repeat.
“You’re safe, you’re safe, you’re safe,” I whispered, gently kissing the palms of her hands.
Her eyes closed and she turned her head slightly away from me as tears fell down her cheeks. She nodded her head slowly.
“I’m safe, I’m safe, I’m safe,” she murmured, her voice faint.
I laid her in the bed and climbed in beside her. I didn’t wrap myself around her at first, because I didn’t know what she needed me to do. I didn’t know if she needed to be held or if she needed space to breathe.
Yet she moved toward me, curled into a ball, and fit herself directly against me, resting her head against my chest. My arms wrapped around her with no plans of ever letting her go again.
As we sat in the darkness, I tried to shield Kierra from seeing my own tears fall. But how could he do that to her? How could he be such a monster that he’d hurt the gentlest being in the world?
That was when I knew that my heart was entangled with hers.
It was at that moment I promised myself I’d never leave her side again. She’d never be that afraid again as long as I lived.
“What will I tell Ava?” she whispered against me. “How do I explain…” She sighed, shaking her head. “How do I tell her what happened?”
“With me,” I told her. “You’ll tell her with me. Then you don’t have to do it alone.”
“I can’t ask you to do that, Gabriel. You’ve already done so much and—”
“Kierra. I’m here forever now. You don’t have to do things alone anymore.”
A weighted sigh of relief rippled through her system. “Thank you.”
“Rest,” I whispered, kissing her forehead.
She did the best she could.
During the night, she woke from nightmares, but I was there to comfort her back to sleep. And when daylight came, we told Ava together.
Ava cried and held on to her mother tightly. She apologized as if it was her fault that Henry had done what he’d done to her mother. Kierra cried, too, and seemed thankful that he would never be able to hurt Ava. He’d never be able to hurt them again as far as I was concerned.
***
Kierra went to court against Henry. It was the messiest situation when the media got ahold of the information that Henry Hughes, the mogul, was an abusive monster. News articles, think pieces, and social media exploded with their own opinions on the whole situation. Kierra made Ava promise that she wouldn’t go online with all the madness going on. Her main concern was to protect her daughter throughout the whole situation. My only concern was to protect them both.
I wished I could say the case sped by quickly, but it took months for Kierra to receive full custody of Ava, and Henry was sentenced to three years in prison for his actions.
There were more tears after that whole situation, but they were tears of freedom.
My girls would be safe.
***
“We can’t just move into your life,” Kierra protested as Ava ran around the backyard with Bentley chasing her. “You’ve already done too much for us, Gabriel. I’m grateful for you letting us stay with you, but I don’t expect you to change your whole life for us.”
We sat on the top step of the back porch, and I shrugged. “Why not? I want to change my whole life for you. I want you and Ava to add more color to this place.”
She leaned against my shoulder. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been surer of anything, Penguin.”
“I just worry that…” She lowered her head. “That I’m too broken still for you. I feel as if I should heal and become a better version of myself before we—”
“Every version of you is the best version,” I told her, and meant it. “And no offense, Kierra, but I’ve waited long enough to have you back with me, and I don’t want to wait any longer. I just want you. In every way, in every fashion, in every season. And we can work on being our best selves together. We can grow together as we move forward.”
She took my hand into hers and kissed my palm. “Grow as we go?”
“Yes. Grow as we go.”
“Okay…good. Besides, I doubt Ava would’ve let me run away from this. Especially since she now has the dog she always wanted.”
I smiled at Ava, who fell over and was getting a million doggy kisses from Bentley. “It’s almost like it was meant to be.”
“Something like that.”
“So, now that you’ve had more time to think about it and process, what are you thinking about Claire?”
Kierra sighed and nodded. “I talked to Ava about it. I wanted to see if it was a wise thing to do, to introduce the two. She’s open to it. I just have to make sure Claire is stable enough to handle it. It’s a very sensitive thing, and I don’t want to put Ava in harm’s way. But I also know Henry, and I can only imagine what he put Claire through. The mind games he probably played with her. And who knows what I would’ve done if I were in her shoes. I would’ve done everything possible to make my way back to my daughter, too.”
“I’m learning that life’s not so black and white.”
“Yes,” she agreed, nudging me in the arm. “Which is exactly why you should talk to your mother.”
“We talk at work.”
“About work things.” She bit her bottom lip. “I mean you should talk about your relationship and Elijah. I think you both should really talk about Elijah together.”
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “It’s going to be hard.”
“Yes,” she agreed, “but we can do hard things.”
“Penguin?”
“Yes?”
“You’re my best friend.”
She smiled and snuggled closer to me. “I know, Gabriel. I know.” She stood up and placed her hands on her waist. “Hey, Ava? Get Bent. Let’s all go to the dog park.”